Letter from NR: “Switching Things Up As NR Turns 3”

First things first, I’d like to mention that in 3 days – January 22, 2014. Nollywood Reinvented would have been live on the internet for exactly three years – time flies. I don’t like to do the math because I don’t want to think about exactly how old I’m getting so let’s move on.

The Problem

For a while now, I have been a tad perturbed about the rating system on NR. It seemed like the ratings were always sky rocketing for some movies even though they technically shouldn’t have. Why? Because in comparison with regular movie standards – not nollywood standards – some of the movies that were getting a 99% rating were really only 3.5 star films and it was time to remedy that.

The Cause

The cause of the problem was that even though there were two different categories for Home Videos and Cinematic movies, both movies were still being rated with the same criteria.

The Solution

Hence, we have now cut out much of the criteria that was previously used. The soundtrack, musical score, video, audio, costumes, settings and props & graphics categories have been cut out of the reviews for cinema releases. Leaving only story, originality, predictability, acting, directing/production and music.

We’ve also adjusted our ratings in and of themselves. Originally, all movies started off from a mid point and gained points for things done right and lost point for things done wrong. Apparently, this is not helping anyone. The point allocation system has therefore changed. Movies shall henceforth all start from point nil and earn every point or stay at nil.

The Rationale

It was quite simple actually. It is only fair to assume that if one is making movies on a higher standard then he or she would probably have already conquered the ghosts of bad audio qualities, soundtracks that tell the storyline, shaky videos, inappropriate costumes and the likes. And on the odd chance that they haven’t, it will be deducted from general production.

The fact was that leaving those extra categories did, quite frankly, give many movies an unfair advantage. There would be movies without any significant storyline or plot and where the actors couldn’t act to save their lives but would end up with higher than expected ratings simply because the video, audio, sets, etc. were all very well done.

The Result

As a result of this, many movies have come down in rating and the averages have changed.

Statistics & Facts

The lowest rated cinematic movie on NR as of today is rated 8% which is a little less than a 0.5 star rating.

The highest rated movie on NR today is rated 81% which is a little more than a 4 star rating.

The average movie rating on NR is within the 50s which is a 2.5 star rating.

The viewer ratings were unaffected so viewer ratings can still be used to determine whether or not to watch a movie.

No changes were made to other categories – home videos, indigenous and Nollywood USA movies. However, reviews will be more stringent henceforth.

Thanks to Naz Onuzo of Inkblot production for indirectly providing the extra push to set this change in motion. The changes might take a while to get used to but as with everything else in life, we eventually will. Please feel free to let us know how you feel about the changes.

Finally, a big thanks to everyone for sticking with us these 3 years. Here’s to many more years to come. Happy Birthday Nollywood Reinvented!